>I believe it is WAY tougher trying to establish yourself a
>producer period, because the market is so saturated....
>
>And....everybody is a producer now.....nobody wants to be just
>a fan who enjoy the music...
>
>Production is a craft. Once cats decided not to study the
>craft, it became watered down....
>


In parallel to what you're saying; Back in the days, you saved up and bought a piece of gear. Whether it was an MPC 60/60II, S950, ASR10, or whatever, you bought it and you learned it inside and out. The hardware made you work for everything. Every bit of dopeness you managed to extract from it had a lot of time spent behind it, and even more work ahead of it.

Software allowed the barrier for entry to be lowered, but not at first. Initially, there was sequencers like Cubase (formerly Pro Twenty-Four), Logic, and Master Tracks Pro. This stuff wasn't easy to use in even the slightest way, so there was still work to be done to get something good sounding to happen with them (mind you, they had to be used with samplers, drum machines, and other sound sources since they were purely MIDI sequencers). They were expensive too, and piracy was all but non existent.

Eventually, as features were added and computers got more powerful, software rivaled the power of some of the best music workstations money could buy.

It's at this point where the craft of producing was being lost.

Withe the advent of Reason, and Fruity Loops' 4.x updates, the power was placed within reach of anyone with a couple hundred dollars or less to spend and piracy further reduced the financial barrier to nothing. (Note: This is not a slight to 9th or anyone that uses/used FL as I use it almost exclusively myself)

With the advances in software in the last few years, the shit almost makes the beats for you. With little thought, cats are churning out sub-par sounding beats left and right in only minutes and on top of that, they're GIVING the shit away to MC Suchandsuch rappers for next to nothing. There was once a time where it wasn't uncommon for a cat to charge local rappers $250-$500 for a beat, now you can get beats 5 for $10. I can understand if it's a cat you really believe in: Just Blaze reportedly did "Exhibit C" without a dime charged. But there's guys offering to do a whole mixtape or album for the cost of an eigth and a couple 40's.

And that's what's happened: The music has been devalued to blue-light special pricing by guys that have no real time vested in crafting good music. This leaves the cats that have spent time honing their skills and building a rep for good solid production work ass out.

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I miss Tha D... But I'll never move back there.


R.I.P. Disco D